The popularity of Amazon’s Kindle is ever growing in size and the temptation for students in purchasing this pocket-sized gadget has never been greater. But it comes down to something of a war between the people of the book vs. the people of the Kindle. The Kindle has been designed with the new modern reader in mind, and with the lowest price being just £69 for one of the older models, there is a mass temptation to trade all of your course readers and novels for this one small handy Kindle. I, however, will be holding onto the old-fashioned route and maintaining my visits to the local charity bookshops and libraries alike. With the Kindle comes the loss of the social side of reading. Books are no longer passed onto friends and family members, as we simply purchase from the suggested novels page after reading our recommended bestseller from our Kindle app. While I may sound very cynical here, it is much more to do with the loss of the lifestyle of reading and lifestyle of books rather than the books themselves that irritates me. With this new reader comes the loss of the attachment to the book and its author.
For most of those who would choose the Kindle it is to do with both the reduction of price and, of course, room space, as I know very well books can take up a whole lot of space. This is understandable and it is the biggest selling point of the Kindle itself. However it is the attitude towards reading that comes with the simplified aisles of the Kindle’s store that upsets book readers like myself. But the truth is that books are simply not something we covet anymore, and the dusty shelves of the library are being obliterated by the clean and simple online aisles of Amazon’s book shop. So who are you going to be siding with this September: the people of the book or the people of the Kindle?
